On August 19, the Michigan Libertarian Party requested that U.S. District Court Judge Paul Borman, who has jurisdiction over Libertarian Party of Michigan v Ruth Johnson, expedite that case. The issue is whether Gary Johnson should be on the ballot as the Libertarian nominee for President. The state is keeping him off because his name appeared on the February 2012 Republican presidential primary ballot.
On August 15, Matt Erard, the Socialist Party’s nominee for U.S. House, 13th district, filed a lawsuit against Michigan’s law on how newly-qualifying parties get on the ballot. Such parties this year need 32,261 signatures, yet older parties only needed 16,083 votes to remain on, for both 2010 and 2012. In Williams v Rhodes, in 1968, the U.S. Supreme Court said states cannot require newly-qualifying parties to show support from more voters than the support that is required for older parties to remain on the ballot. The case is Erard v Michigan Secretary of State, eastern district, U.S. District Court, 2:12-cv-13627.
Erard is a pro se litigant, so he can’t represent the Socialist Party; he can only represent himself.
Washington state will release official election returns, for the primary of August 7, on August 21. It appears that turnout will be 38.4% of registered voters, the lowest turnout on record for any Washington primary in a gubernatorial election year in history.
All the statewide state executive offices, and all the Congressional races, in November, will be between one Republican and one Democrat. The only minor party candidates who will appear on the November ballot for any state or congress are two state legislative candidates, who ran in districts in which only one major party member ran. At the August primary, the Green Party candidate in the primary, Howard Pellett, running against a Democrat in the 40th district, received 21.5%, placing second. The Socialist Alternative Party candidate in the primary, Kshama Sawant, running against a Democrat in the 43rd district, received 9.1%, placing second.
The San Jose Mercury News has this story about a local ballot measure placed on the November ballot by the Santa Clara Valley Water Agency. Election laws say the measure’s description on the ballot cannot exceed 75 words, but the description submitted by the agency is 77 words. The Agency then tried to correct the problem, but has not been able to do so. Thanks to Around the Capitol for the link.
The Philadelphia Inquirer has this article about the challenge to the Constitution Party and Libertarian Party statewide petitions. Although the article is fairly long, it makes no mention of the pending federal lawsuit that seeks to overturn the system.
